Hi guys,
Here's the next chapter.
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Draco's Point of View
There isn't enough time to untangle Granger's body from mine before the herd makes its way, charging into the tent. The rain follows them through the makeshift door creating a mud pool at the entrance. Lupin stands at the front of the group, scanning the tent until he sees us at the back. Something about the look on his face when he spots us makes me question whether he would have preferred to not be standing at the front, seeing us first. But of course, it's nothing compared to the sweet satisfaction I get from seeing the Weasel's head pop around his shoulder and spot up.
All our years together at Hogwarts and I've wanted nothing more than to be able to make his face twist up like that. I linger a beat longer before releasing Granger's balled-up fist from my shirt. She stirs lightly but awareness doesn't reach her eyes.
Lupin strides across the tent, jumping up on the platform where the beds sit. Potter and the two Weasels follow awkwardly behind.
"How'd you do it, huh?" he shouts, accusingly. I turn back down towards Granger and notice that she's finally rousing, obviously to the volume of Lupin's voice. Her alertness finds her quickly then and she bolts upright in the small, dingy bed. I grab her shoulder to stop her from slipping off the side of the bed as she rubs her eyes, turning towards the group.
"Get out of the bed," he spits, leaning across Granger to grab me. If the entire situation hadn't been heavy with tension I might have laughed when his fist grasped my t-shirt. Granger deflects his hand with her elbow.
"Remus, what the hell is going on?" she asks. She leans around him and notices the other standing uneasily below the slight platform.
"Harry? Is something wrong?" she asks Potter.
"Someone showed up at Grimmauld Place," Potter announces. Granger looks expectantly at them. The two Weasels stare at the ground vacuously, unwillingly to get involved. She laughs mockingly.
"So? I hope this doesn't come as a shock to everyone but people show up at Grimmauld place every day! It's a safe house!" she continues, mockingly.
"Oh but Hermione dear, it wasn't someone from our side," Lupin says with an air of sagacity floating around him.
"It was somebody from his," Potter interjects. I stare at him for a beat, letting the words hang in the air.
Someone from my side?
I swing my legs over the side of the bed.
"What do you mean? Who is it?" Granger asks, putting a firm hand on my shoulder to try and keep me seated on the bed. But I don't like this stance Lupin has over me. I stand and his eyes turn a little up towards me.
"It's almost laughable that he shows up here and suddenly, out of nowhere, someone else from his side does, too? Now how would they know where Grimmauld place is?" Lupin asks sardonically.
"Malfoy didn't.." Granger starts.
"Malfoy can speak for himself," Lupin says, raising his hand up towards Granger's face to silence her.
I slap his hand away from her face. Granger's eyes bulge from her head for a moment and Lupin steps towards me, rubbing his hand against his hip. Potter chimes in, placing a hand on either of our chests.
"Easy," he warns me.
"Yes, it is easy, actually," I say, ignoring everyone else and glaring at Lupin.
"What do you mean?" He questions, squaring up to me.
"It's easy to find Grimmauld Place. It's not like it's well hidden. Even a goddamn Muggle could find Grimmauld Place if they really tried," I explain.
"What? Do you think I just nonchalantly sent out an owl with the address on it? Do you think that little of me?" Lupin sneers in response.
"Actually yes, I do. I think you're stupid enough to do it," he supplies.
Granger stands up from the bed, placing herself between Lupin and me just before I take a step towards him. Potter moves away, running an angry hand through his hair.
"You have to admit how this looks Malfoy," he supplies. Granger speaks augmentatively to them, their words twisting into a giant convoluted mess while I try to picture my mother standing foolishly outside Grimmauld Place with a box of peppermint tea still clutched to her chest, the way I left her back at that cottage. Because rationally, who else could it be? Who else even knows where I went or more importantly, who I went with?
"Hermione your opinion on the matter is biased, you have to at least acknowledge that," Lupin argues.
"My opinion is not biased, Remus. I'm perfectly capable of looking at the whole picture," Granger argues, stiltedly.
"We can't just chalk everything up to coincidence when he's here. It's not fair on the rest of us if you ask us to do that," Weasel argues and I leer over at him momentarily, glad of the opportunity.
"No, you would just prefer to blame everything possible on him instead. Slight draft in the room, hmm, must be Malfoy, I guess?" she argues facetiously.
"Hermione, be reasonable," Potter interjects.
"Look! Let's just cut the shit, okay? Who was it?" I say, interrupting them and pushing away from Lupin to address Potter. He's the most tolerable of the group.
"Who was it? You mean who is it? Because they're still there now," Lupin says.
"It's Pansy," Potter announces, placing a hand on Lupin's shoulder to pull him back a little.
"Pansy Parkinson?" Granger exclaims and turns to look up at me.
Mentally I slip away imperceptibly from the room. Something is wrong. That's the first thought that enters my head when Potter says her name. Not much has changed for her since Hogwarts. Pansy Parkinson is a sheep and she always has been, like my mother in that aspect. If she is here, at Grimmauld Place, then something is wrong. She would never come here willingly. Much like my mother, she doesn't possess free will in the same sense as others do. Not when it comes to the larger picture.
"Somethings wrong," I say, mostly to Granger's fearful eyes.
"Finally, he says something we can all agree on," Lupin retorts, scowling.
"What do you mean? Why is she there?" Granger asks me softly, her voice free from the venom she used with the others. Her voice whispers up to me and when I turn to look at her the others in the room drift away for a moment.
"And how did she get there? More importantly," Lupin adds but his words don't reach us.
"She's clever like that. If she wanted to find Grimmauld Place then she will. She could always find out anything she wanted to. She knew the right people to ask," I tell Granger.
Hermione's Point of View.
The mood in the tent is dismal at best. The look that crossed Malfoy's face as the mention of Pansy's name stirs a new feeling in the pit of my stomach. A feeling that I don't have the time to analyze or question, especially with Remus's face looking repleted with rage.
"Why would she be there?" I ask Malfoy. His eyes glaze over a little.
" I don't know," he answers brusquely.
"I just know she would never come looking for me unless something was wrong," he explains shortly, turning away from Remus and Harry. His shoulders- much broader than the last time I saw him- block out the light, creating a sort of ethereal glow around him. I search his face quickly while he's still somewhat lost in thought, allowing myself a moment to feel and perhaps even trust Remus's apprehension. I search his face, the frown toying at his lips and how his brows furrow together in concentration. I search to see if there's even the slightest possibility, that I could be wrong about all of this. I search to see if I could be biased when it comes to Malfoy.
When he notices me staring and catches my eye, I don't see it. I don't see any notion of knowledge. Just confusion. The same look I'm wearing. The same look everyone in his tent is wearing. He didn't plan this or disclose the location to anyone. So why? Why is she here? Why now?
"Where is she now?" I ask, stepping around Malfoy.
"Tonk's called, she said she just showed up. She's in the kitchen there now with Tonks and Mrs. Weasley," Harry explains.
"And she's been asking for Malfoy apparently," Harry adds after a beat.
"Did she say why?" I ask Harry.
"She won't say anything apparently. Just that she wants to talk to Malfoy," he replies.
"Then we should go and see what she wants," I suggest, gathering my robe off of the floor.
"So we're just giving into the demands of known Death Eaters?" Remus asks, incredulously.
"Malfoy said she wouldn't come here unless something was wrong!" I justify.
I grab the food Fleur had given us and take Malfoy's robe off the back of the bed, handing it to him. His eyes are still distant, staring ahead in a complete daze.
"Hermione, please. You have to see that this is far too dangerous," Ron reasons.
"Fine, then just Malfoy and I will go together and we'll meet you back at Grimmauld Place tomorrow," I supply to which Remus frowns.
"No! Hermione, we have to stick together, remember?" Harry shouts, worried.
"Let's just all go then, okay? I'm sick of this bickering!" Ginger finally states, removing her coat from around her waist and slipping her arms through.
After the words barely have time to find their place in the air, Malfoy storms out of the tent, pushing the entrance flap aside so it smacks hard against the side of the tent. The rain storms in for a moment as I watch him disappear into the night.
"Come on," I say, pushing Remus along as he stares agape after Malfoy.
I cast the charm quickly as I search the sand dunes for Malfoy. The bag rocks in my arms as the last few rods find their way back into the bag, the tent completely disassembled.
"Where is he?" Harry shouts and the wind barely allows his voice to whisper. I'm soaked to the skin in seconds as the rain falls in large, thick droplets making it almost impossible to see more than a few feet in front of me. They feel sharp against my cheek, like small pieces of glass cascading down from the clouds above.
"Let's go," Ron shouts, grabbing my waist and lifting me onto the large rock Malfoy and I were sleeping on mere hours ago.
The constant rain has caused the sand to turn into thick, slippery mush. A stream rushes down from several higher-up areas of the sand dune and it's almost impossible to climb up through it all. My shoe sinks deep into a mushy pit in the dirt and I feel the water and muck sink in around my sock.
"I'm stuck!" I call out, throwing my hand up over my brow to try to make out any shapes in the darkness. A warm hand wraps around my ankle and yanks. My foot comes loose, leaving behind my shoe to be eaten up by the sand and rain. Ron pushes me forward again.
I grab onto anything my hands can find and pull myself forward. I swipe frantically at my face to remove the hair that's plastered against me.
At the top Ginny grabs my hand and hoists me up the last step or two.
"Where is he?" I ask when I reach the top, scanning the darkness for him. I right myself and stare down at my wet sock. Ginny taps me on the shoulder and points ahead. Again, I have to cover my brow to even see anything. A dark silhouette stands further ahead, right at the apparition point. I push forward, off-kilter without one shoe and against the rocky, unbalanced hillside.
I grab onto Malfoy's arm when I reach him. The other's a still making their way up. I lean up and whisper in his ear.
"Don't do that again," I whisper. It had meant to sound more like a warning but climbing the side of the sand dune had taken most of the anger out of me. All that's left is concern and that disquieting feeling in the pit of my stomach.
He looks down at me, his fringe billowing wildly in the breeze. His disposition hasn't altered in the slightest since being back in the tent. I'm not sure if he ever registered that it's me tugging on his arm.
The others join us at the apparating point, beaten and out of breath. Ginny grabs my arm and we apparate silently, no one wanting to waste their breath just for it to be swallowed by the wind. But I continue to stare up at Malfoy as we apparate, that feeling only getting worse the more I look.
Back in the field, Remus looks angrier than ever.
"Where are the cars?" Ginny asks.
"They're on their way," Remus grunts, having ginny catch the blunt end of his anger. She sighs and takes my hand in hers.
"We'll have to walk a little until they get here, I guess," Harry supplies when the silence of the group gets too much for him to bare.
Malfoy grabs my wrist and pulls me along ahead of the others. His legs move in long strides, and I have to run to keep up with him.
"Malfoy, please slow down," I argue, tugging on his arm. He looks behind to see the others are now a reasonable distance behind and thankfully slows his pace.
I look around and into some of the windows of the houses we pass, seeing families in Infront of their TVs or sitting down at dining room tables for dinner or a late snack. It's surreal the situation we're in. I never thought I would be walking through muggle London with Draco Malfoy but here we are.
There is very little rain back here in London and I can make out his face clearly under the passing street lights. He watches over his shoulder warily. I guess aware that it's not the best idea for him to be spotted walking around London.
"It's okay, I'm sure the cars will be here soon," I explain, hoping to start the conversation off. But he just nods and purses his lips together in response. The fear and anxiety tumble and burn in the pit of my stomach.
"What's going on?" I say, unable to stop the words from coming out.
"I don't know," he says stoically. He starts to pick up the pace again when he hears Ginny talking with Harry behind us.
"Malfoy, I'm…"
"I don't know, Granger, okay? To answer your next question too. I don't know," he snaps. I lower my head and fall a little behind him for a step or two. He notices and grabs my wrist again, pulling me along with him. He slips his two fingers down into the palm of my hand and I stare up at him. His eyes hang heavy with the remnants of rain from a place that feels like a different world.
"I won't if I don't have to, okay?" he says, looking down at me with omniscient eyes.
"You won't what?" I ask, biting my lip, dreading the answer.
"Leave," he whispers as two cars make their way towards us in the distance. Their headlights illuminate the entire street. Malfoy shields his eyes away from the light.
I jump into the first car and Malfoy slides in beside me, uneasy still in the unfamiliar environment of the muggle car. Ginny slides in across from us and shuts the sliding door behind her. Harry hesitates at the door for a moment before jumping in the second car with the others.
We ride in silence back to Grimmauld place. Malfoy bounces his leg methodically and I watch Ginny watching him, trying to read her expression. She shakes her head at me sadly and casts her eyes out towards the passing cars.
When the car finally reaches Grimmauld Place the rain has picked up here too and Tonk's stands in the entranceway, an arm over her brow shielding her against the rain. I see her then, standing uncomfortably beside Tonks. She stares ahead towards the car, unsure. Malfoy notices her and reaches toward the door unsure of how to open it. Ginny leans across him and pulls the sliding door open. Malfoy jumps out of the car as soon as the door is open.
For a moment I can't bring myself to move at all. I watch as Remus tried to catch Malfoy by his robe, but he pulls it away. Pansy spots Malfoy and makes her way toward him. I sit in the car, listening to the sound of the engine turning over, the rumbling ceasing as Ginny leans against the sliding door.
Pansy wraps her arms around his neck and buries her head into his shoulder. Ginny rubs the back of her neck uneasily as we all watch them.
"This can't be good," Ginny mumbles, more to herself than me. I swing my legs out the door but stay sitting, just watching. Malfoy wraps his arms around her waist, rubbing her back as she cries.
The feeling in my stomach rises to my throat and stays there. Remus approaches them and speaks to them but I can't hear him. Tonk's beckons us from the doorway, but I can't move.
I look at Malfoy with the only other girl he's ever been close to, whether it had ever been romantic or strictly platonic I can't say. The feeling that has risen to a ball in my throat finally whispers and identifies itself.
Jealousy.